Jeep division head Manley was named on Saturday to succeed longtime Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne, one of the auto industry's most tenacious and respected auto chiefs, who fell seriously ill after suffering complications following surgery.

Fiat Chrysler boss Sergio Marchionne is expected to show on Friday how the carmaker plans to fix lagging margins in Europe, grow Jeep into a global giant and catch up in electric and self-driving cars - all without him in the driving seat.

FCA has been retooling some U.S. factories to boost output of sport-utility vehicles (SUVs) and trucks while ending production of some unprofitable sedans to boost profitability in North America, where it makes the lion's share of profit.

An agreement would be a major coup for the Chinese auto industry, though it may cause political waves in the United States, where President Donald Trump has railed against his country's trade imbalance with the Asian giant.

In July, a well-known but unnamed Chinese automaker made at least one offer to buy Fiat Chrysler at a price supposedly above its current market value, the industry news site Automotive News reported earlier this week.

Dheeraj Hinduja, chairman at India’s second largest truck maker Ashok Leyland, prefers a low profile, but with managing director Vinod Dasari leaving at the end of the month, he says he’s become more “hands-on”.